I've been using Ubuntu for about 15 months, so my Linux experience is limited, but what I have found with regard to file ownership is

Files and Folders on ext3 partitions are normally owned by ~/name and you can do most things with them. You do sometimes find that you have to reset permissions which can be done either from Nautilus (Assuming you are using Gnome) or from the terminal.

Files and Folders on Windoze partitions (FAT/NTSC) are owned by root and you can't change ownership but you can change permissions but that has to be done from the terminal as root (sudo chmod...).

Maybe if you want to "get your hands dirty" and poke around in the system, you should try Debian itself rather than Ubuntu. I am very happy with Ubuntu, it lets me do most things I want to do, but I do have a dual boot WinXP/Ubuntu computer as there is a small number of Windows programs I find useful and Wine doesn't always do the business.